CURRENT EVENTS

According to a new report from Raleigh, N.C. television affiliate WRAL, Google might have quietly helped local detectives in their pursuit of two gunmen who committed separate crimes roughly one-a-half years apart. How? According to the story, Raleigh police presented the company with warrants not for information about specific suspects but rather data from all the mobile devices that were within a certain distance of the respective crime scenes at the time the crimes were committed.

Vladimir Putin rolled to a crushing re-election victory Sunday for six more years as Russia’s president, and he told cheering supporters in a triumphant but brief speech that “we are bound for success.”

After an incident involving a teacher at Preston High School in which a Biology teacher allegedly fed a live puppy to a snapping turtle in front of his class, Idaho “officials” have . . . . killed the snapping turtle.

Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s statement following his dismissal may have incriminated former FBI Director James Comey, according to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.

Promoting the image of a new Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives Monday in Washington on a cross-country trip to court government officials, Silicon Valley technology companies, investors and one of his biggest fans: President Donald Trump.

The charity attempted to "contain" sexual harassment allegations involving Raphael Mutiku, a Kenyan aid worker in his 40s who led Oxfam's installation of water supplies in Haiti after the earthquake, according to an internal report seen by The Times.

The documents claim to show a final written warning was issued to Mr Mutiku in June 2010 following allegations of sexual harassment from female colleagues.

But six months later when it was alleged Mr Mutiku was paying young women for sex at his Oxfam accommodation, his manager at the charity's headquarters in Oxford is reported to have said he hoped the charity could "contain this".

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 115 people in the San Diego area this week in a three-day operation that began when President Trump visited the region.

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that most of the arrests happened in San Diego County, but there were other arrests in nearby Imperial County.

The arrests involved undocumented immigrants who had criminal convictions, had been arrested on criminal charges, had been ordered to be deported or had returned to the U.S. after having been previously deported.

Annie Onishi, general surgery resident at Columbia University, takes a look at emergency room and operating room scenes from a variety of television shows and movies and breaks down how accurate they really are.

House Democrats, still reeling from a historic tax win on the right, say Republicans are working to cut the social safety net by kicking 8 million, about 20 percent of all participants, off of the food stamps program.

Google says there are currently no 'statistically significant' pay gaps at
Google says there are currently no 'statistically significant' pay gaps at the company across race and gender. This is based on the company's most recent pay analysis, where it looked at unexplained pay discrepancies based on gender and race and then made adjustments where necessary, Google wrote in a blog post today.

A 5-year-old boy was overcome with emotion as he watched his mother walk down the aisle at her Ohio wedding.
Tearra Suber said she didn’t notice her then 5-year-old son, Bryson, was so emotional until she got closer to the altar at her 2016 wedding.

Linda Perry performs at the Townsend on March 13 in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Lorne Thomson/Redferns)
Linda Perry started off as a ’90s rock trailblazer with 4 Non Blondes, then established herself as one of the most successful producers and songwriters in the business as she worked with fellow strong women like P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Adele, and Courtney Love. But Perry is an anomaly in the business: A famous study from 2010 claimed women accounted for less

CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Toys 'R' Us secured a $3.1 billion bankruptcy loan in September, toy makers were reassured they would be paid for goods delivered to the company as it tried to emerge from Chapter 11.

Russian media reported on Friday that its military snuck nuclear attack submarines near US military bases and left undetected just weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin hyped up his country's nuclear capabilities.

Jacob Shoemaker, a senior at Hilliard Davidson High School in Hilliard, Ohio, was in fact suspended. But not because he chose not to join his classmates and the hundreds of thousands of students across the country who walked out of their classrooms to protest gun violence in the wake of a Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead. It was because he didn’t go to a designated area of the school where the non-protesters were supposed to be, and instead stayed by himself in a classroom.

An Alaska Airlines pilot who is suing her employer, claiming that she was drugged and raped by her co-pilot during a layover, said she believes that what happened to her is an industry-wide issue that is often "swept under the rug."

A U.S. Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan is in danger of being deported following a years-old drug conviction that sparked ICE's taking him into custody.
Miguel Perez Jr., a native of Mexico, came to the United States legally when he was 8 and grew up in Chicago as a legal permanent resident. He served two tours of duty in Afghanistan prior to being discharged from the Army in 2010 with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to ABC station WLS-TV in Chicago.

“The most likely source of origin of the toxin are the countries which have been carrying out intense research on the substances from the ‘Novichok’ program, approximately since the end of the 1990s until the present time, and this project is not the creation of Russia or the Soviet Union,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday. She listed the UK, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Sweden among the countries involved.

The US should also “be put under question,” Zakharova said in an interview with the state broadcaster VGTRK.

“How did they come to the conclusion about a Russian ‘footprint’ if they didn’t give us those samples? Logically they shouldn’t have this substance. Which samples have they compared with to draw such a conclusion?” she went on. “Questions arise: then, they should have samples, which they conceal, or it is a lie from start to finish.”

The Chicago Republican Party plans to file a lawsuit against the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) over its decision to organize students to participate in Wednesday’s student walkouts that promoted gun control.

“It’s appalling that 10 to 14-year-old kids would be coerced, by their teachers, to participate in a political demonstration,” said Chris Cleveland, chairman of the Chicago GOP, in a statement. “A 10-year-old kid isn’t going to have an informed opinion on these political matters, and shouldn’t be expected to have the fortitude to hold a different opinion from everyone else in his or her classroom. This is political indoctrination, pure and simple.”

“It’s a violation of CPS policy, of state law, and of the First Amendment for a government-run school to organize a political demonstration and pressure students to participate in it,” he added.

As the Ghouta campaign continues to unfold, we should expect that both politicians and mainstream media will give us - in the words of philosopher and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr - "necessary illusion and emotionally potent oversimplifications" intended to shape our perceptions of events.

This worldview is what BBC filmmaker Adam Curtis accurately characterized as a 'goodies and baddies' dualistic vision of global events which keeps the Western public under the illusion that its own political leaders are perpetually driven by concern over human rights, defending the weak and oppressed, and spreading democracy over and against the unenlightened megalomaniac dictators of the world who are simply bent on brutalizing their own people.

I’m happy to report some good news coming out of New Orleans thanks to the excellent investigative reporting of Ali Winston with The Verge.

As I reported two weeks ago, Winston helped to uncover a secret predictive policing program that had been ongoing for 6 years by the New Orleans PD in cooperation with CIA-connected Palantir Technologies. The program had been designed to operate behind the cover of a philanthropic partnership orchestrated by political operative James Carville so as to avoid having to disclose the details to citizens and even to their elected representatives in the city council. Now it appears that the intrepid reporting of Ali Winston has led to the abrupt cancelling of the program just a short time after the initial article was published.

Jacob Shoemaker, a senior at Hilliard Davidson High School, said he didn’t want to take sides in the gun-control debate consuming the country. If he went outside for the walkout, he said, he would be supporting gun control. If he stayed in the common area of the school, he said, he would be seen as supporting gun violence and disrespecting the 17 lives lost in the Parkland, Fla. High school shooting the month before.

Former CIA chief John Brennan did not mince his words when taking aim at
Former CIA chief John Brennan did not mince his words when taking aim at President Donald Trump on Saturday morning.
In a blistering tweet, Brennan blasted Trump for celebrating the dismissal of former FBI deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

China said it will begin applying its so-called social credit system to flights and trains and stop people who have committed misdeeds from taking such transport for up to a year.

People who would be put on the restricted lists included those found to have committed acts like spreading false information about terrorism and causing trouble on flights, as well as those who used expired tickets or smoked on trains, according to two statements issued on the National Development and Reform Commission’s website on Friday.

Those found to have committed financial wrongdoings, such as employers who failed to pay social insurance or people who have failed to pay fines, would also face these restrictions, said the statements which were dated March 2.

It added that the rules would come into effect on May 1.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Look for such rules starting to take effect here in the US, in the not too distant future.

But hey, there's always an upside, right?!?

Look for car ownership in China to begin to spiral like crazy, if public transport is out of the question, because of some real - or imagined- slight against its Central Government.

Two of the largest parts of a journalist's job are waiting and making phone calls. When you're waiting, it's likely for someone to return a call. When you're making a phone call, it's likely to set up an interview, or interview someone over the phone, Skype or whatever.

Webmaster's Commentary:

She lied; the reporter was going to call her out on that lie, and HE is the person arrested here?!?

I used to believe that Canada was a very cool place; Mike and I visited a number of times when we lived in Washington state.

But its rising level of political correctness, coupled with a massive assault on journalists, now makes it a place I would never want to visit again.

As the Free Thought Project reported earlier this month, a jaw-dropping independent investigation has revealed that hundreds of children, some as young as 11-years-old, are estimated to have been drugged, beaten, and raped over the last several decades in a single town. According to the investigation, the abuse was allowed and is continued to be allowed because authorities look the other way. Now, TFTP has confirmed that this is indeed the case.

The investigation claims that allegations dating back to the 1980s were mishandled by authorities, who repeatedly failed to punish a network of abusers, according to the Telegraph.

According to a new report, it appears police were told from within their own department—via an internal memo—claiming that “in most cases the sex is consensual.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

It is only the monied, in any country, who can carry on with these kinds of bestial abuses of children with impunity, and suffer no consequences for their behaviour.

If you have young children, and are thinking about going on holiday in the UK, you really should think again.

About a year ago, President Trump pledged to eliminate the national debt "over a period of eight years." But for the first time in history, the national debt surpassed $21 trillion this week, according to the U.S. Treasury.

A group of US lawmakers led by Senator Bob Menendez told the State Department in a letter that any sale of Russian S-400 air defense system should lead to new punitive measures as stipulated in the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

“We are writing today to specifically inquire about reported negotiations between Russia and certain countries over sales of the Russian government’s S-400 air defense system and whether these reported deals could trigger mandatory CAATSA sanctions,” the letter said on Friday. “Under any circumstance, a S-400 sale would be considered a ‘significant transaction’ and we expect that any sale would result in designations.”

The lawmakers also requested that the State Department provide detailed analysis on the current status of Russian S-400 talks with China, Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and any other country.

Webmaster's Commentary:

In that last statement, Senator Menendez is definitely heading into "pot...kettle...black" territory.

Does the Senator suffer from such a bad case of SMD (selective memory disorder), that he cannot remember that in 2014, the US sponsored the coup in Ukraine which unseated the duly elected President Yanukovich, and replaced him with Western Centric Poroshenko, a gentleman most likely with family mob connections, and assassins on speed dial?!?

President Obama admitted as much, as reported from globalresearch.ca in the following article:

Now, as to preventing other nations in dialogue with Russia about the S-400 weaponry, such as China, Turky, India Saudia Arabia and Qatar; the system works far better, and is a lot cheaper than anything the US has to offer.

The fact that the US's military industrial complex appears to be incapable of producing anything, to date, which can best it, is not Russia's fault.

To deny these countries access to it, is a form of international restraint of trade, and sanction Russia for selling this to them, creates insult added to injury, as though relations with Russia are not bad enough at the moment.

I would politely suggest, Senator, that what you COULD do, from an American perspective, is go on a fact-finding mission, as to why the American military complex, at this point, has nothing really to compete with the S-400, and just what they intend to do about it.

Former CIA chief John Brennan did not mince his words when taking aim at President Donald Trump on Saturday morning.
In a blistering tweet, Brennan blasted Trump for celebrating the dismissal of former FBI deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

A homeless couple and their two young children, all dressed for bed, were found dead from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in a parked van that had its windows covered with blankets and a shade to block out the light outside a Southern California strip mall, police said Friday.

Louisville, Kentucky – Three innocent men have been released from prison after serving a combined total of more than 50 years for crimes they did not commit, and they all have one thing in common—a homicide detective who they blame for their wrongful convictions.

Edwin Chandler spent nine years in prison after he was convicted of shooting and killing store clerk Brenda Whitfield during a robbery in 1993. However, he was exonerated in 2010 after it was determined that another man, who was already serving 20 years on an unrelated assault charge, was responsible for the robbery and the murder.

Chandler sued the city of Louisville and the police department and received $8.5 million in damages. However, the officer who he blames for forcing him to give a false confession faced no repercussions.

Webmaster's Commentary:

What kind of ba*tards is the State of Kentucky hiring as its police officers?!?

IF this is how Kentucky police interprets the phrase "to protect and serve", were I a resident of that state, I would be voting with my feet, and getting the hell out of there, and immediately.

The UN has decided it's possibly Facebook's fault things are going so badly in Myanmar. Muslims have been fleeing the country in droves thanks to Myanmar security forces engaging in widespread acts of violence (including rape) against them, urged on by hardline nationalist monks.

For all intents and purposes, Facebook is Myanmar's internet. Loosening of restrictions on social media access has resulted in a large portion of the population getting all their news (along with all the hate speech the UN is complaining about) via the social media giant. The UN is looking into genocide accusations but has decided to speak up against Facebook first.

Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told reporters that social media had played a “determining role” in Myanmar.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Instead of wiping out logical opinions which differ from that of the "official narrative" in this country, perhaps Facebook should be focused on wiping out true hate speech against the Rohingyas on line in Myanmar.

And speculatively, was some kind of "financial arrangement"created by the government of Myanmar with Facebook to insure that the hate speech against the Rohingyas stayed up, and did not get self-censored?!?

A Democratic lawmaker on Saturday offered to hire former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe in an effort to help McCabe qualify to receive his pension after being fired from the agency two days before he qualified to receive it.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) was responding to a tweet from NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who said the former FBI official might still be able to receive his pension if he’s hired by a member of Congress.

“Andrew call me. I could use a good two-day report on the biggest crime families in Washington, D.C.,” Pocan tweeted.

Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker said today that a highly anticipated report from the DOJ's Inspector General Michael Horowitz will contain "some pure TNT." Horowitz has been investigating the conduct of the FBI's top brass surrounding the 2016 election for over a year. He also uncovered over 50,000 text messages between two anti-Trump / pro-Clinton FBI employees directly involved in the exoneration of Clinton and the counterintelligence operation launched against the Trump campaign.

Swecker: “The behavior if it’s manifested in the action with your thumb on the scale of a particular investigation, one way or the other, that’s borderline criminal behavior — manipulating an investigation. I think this IG report is going to be particularly impactful, more so than any of these useless congressional investigations. I think you’re going to see some pure TNT come out in this IG report.”

Well, it appears that Assad is a relentless glutton for punishment, because not even a year later, the WaPo reported two weeks ago that the US is considering a new military action against Syria for - what else - retaliation against Assad's latest chemical attack, which took place several weeks earlier.

How do we know Assad (and apparently, Russia) was behind the attack? We don't: in fact, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a moment of bizarre honesty, admitted that he really doesn't know much at all about "whoever conducted the attacks." But hey: just like it is "highly likely" that Russia poisoned the former Russian double agent in the UK - with no proof yet - so it is "highly likely" that a clearly irrational Assad was once again behind an attack which he knew would provoke violent and aggressive retaliation by the US, and once again destabilize his regime.

Webmaster's Commentary:

IF in fact what General Rudskoy is stating is true, we are seriously looking at war with Russia over Syria.

The "President Whisperers" around President Trump have gently fed him the koolaid over time, probably on an industrial-strength IV drip, that the US could actually triumph over Russia in this circumcumstance, which is not at all certain, given the Russian military's understanding of terrain, and superior weapons systems, which have been tested, successfully, in Syria.

I am completely disgusted at a US government and American Deep State, which still believes they can lie to the American public with impunity, and get away with it; NOT THIS TIME!!

Because the logical question to ask is, why would Al Assad order a chemical attack against his own people, when his, and the Russian militaries, are winning the fight against the jihadists?!?!

Benjamin 'Benjy' Firester, 18, of New York City, won the top award in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2018, the oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors in the United States.

Former CIA Director John Brennan tore into President Trump for celebrating the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, saying Trump will be remembered as “a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.”

On Thursday someone with ties to the Trump administration leaked information which indicates the president plans to execute drug dealers in an attempt to curb the national overdose death crisis. But absent from the president’s yet-unannounced policy is any accountability directed toward the billion-dollar pharmaceutical pain-killer industry >>>

A German teenager was found dead this week and her Afghan failed asylum seeker boyfriend has been arrested on suspicion of killing her; her friends claim he was angry she would not convert to Islam.
Ahmad G., 18, was arrested this week after police suspect he may have stabbed 17-year-old Mireille B. who was murdered on Monday night in the German town of Flensburg, Bildreports.

According to a friend of the victim’s family, Ahmad G. had been angry with her over her refusal to convert to Islam.

School administrators in British Columbia are trying to fight racism by posting a series of white-shaming posters on school walls, in an effort to educate students on the evils of “white privilege.”
The posters, based on a similar billboard campaign mounted last summer in Saskatoon, bear messages encouraging students to “confront racism” and to not “be blind to the invisible system I am a part of.”

Melvin Escobar, who manages the Auburn, Maine, location, said it has encountered teenagers in the past who ate without paying for their meals, The Associated Press reported. But that’s no excuse for asking anyone to pay first, Escobar told the AP, adding “this is the first time it happened, and that will be the last time." Rebelez, the IHOP president, echoed that sentiment, saying in his statement, “this isolated incident is not reflective of that ongoing commitment” to “create a warm and hospitable dining experience for all guests.”

According to a deep dive into Jared Kushner’s introduction into the family real estate business, former tenants who lived in the first apartments the teen Kushner purchased — with family money — recall living without heat and problems with raw sewage that no one saw fit to repair. The Boston Globe spoke with tenants who lived in apartment complexes in the city of Somerville, northwest of Boston, who remember when Kushner, then an undergraduate at Harvard began purchasing properties and converting them into condos.